Many chemical reactions in both inorganic and organic chemistry involve relocation of hydrogen atoms, ions (protons), or molecules, which need to be transferred from one chemical molecule to another molecule, or exchanged with other atoms, ions or radicals in the reaction route. Amongst many such reactions, the most common types are: hydrogenation and dehydrogenation, reduction/oxidation, various types of reactions involving organic compounds, electrochemical reactions, and reactions in all types of fuel cells. All these reactions may exhibit a wide spectrum of various types of chemical bonding and various underlying atomic-scale mechanisms, as well as different nature of atomic interactions. In all of them, there is however one universal feature that controls the rate and efficiency of these reactions, i.e. the effectiveness of hydrogen relocation. In the course of these reactions, the events of hydrogen transfer or exchange occur repeatedly and improving the efficiency of hydrogen relocation is the main challenge for many chemical technologies. In the most effective way, the reactions with hydrogen transfer can be facilitated by catalysis. The ultimate role of catalysts is to promote atomic-scale processes of hydrogen transfer or exchange (by lowering the activation energy connected with hydrogen relocation). In most cases, in the absence of the catalysts the chemical reaction would either not occur at all, or would take place with much lower efficiencies, rates, or at higher temperatures. The general field of catalysis (which became one of the critical factors for the chemical technologies) is at present relatively wide and well developed, with a large number of various catalytic materials being investigated and used.
In general, there are two main categories of catalysts: heterogeneous and homogeneous. Homogeneous catalysts are in the same phase as the basic reactants, and heterogeneous catalysts are in the different phase, for example: solid catalysts in the gaseous reactions. The development and current understanding of catalysis allows us to distinguish two essential catalytic mechanisms, i.e. acidic catalysis and basic catalysis, where reactants act either as bases toward catalysts which in turn act as acids, or as acids toward basic catalysts. Amongst many types of basic catalysts, the following are the most common: (H. Hattori “Heterogeneous Basic Catalysts”, Chem. Rev. 1995, 95, 537)                Single component metal oxides (e.g. alkaline earth oxides)        Zeolites        Supported alkali metal ions (e.g. alkali metals on alumina)        Clay minerals        Non-oxide catalysts (e.g. KF supported on alumina)        
For acidic catalysis, the following catalytic materials are being commonly used (A. Corma “Inorganic Solid Acids and Their Use in Acid-Catalyzed Hydrocarbon reactions”, Chem. Rev. 1995, 95, 559):                Solid acid catalysts (e.g. amorphous silica-alumina and aluminum phosphate)        Zeolites and zeotypes        Heteropoly acids        Sulfated metal oxides.        
The simplest catalysts are single-phase materials, such as metals, oxides, sulfides, carbides, borides and nitrides. Metal particles are among the most important catalysts, being used on a large scale for refining petroleum, conversion of automobile exhaust, hydrogenation of carbon monoxide, hydrogenation of fats and many other processes. Multiphase catalysts usually consist of an active phase (e.g. metal particles or clusters) dispersed on a carrier (support). It is generally assumed that metal particles act most probably as active centers for the hydrogen dissociation, but the role of the support is so far still not fully understood. In practice the metal is often expensive (for example Pt) and may constitute only about 1 wt. % of the catalytic material, being applied in a finely dispersed form as particles on a high-area porous metal oxide support (B. C. Gates “Supported Metal Clusters: Synthesis, Structure, and Catalysis”, Chem. Rev. 1995, 95, 511). Supported metal clusters are synthesized through organometallic chemistry on surfaces, gas-phase cluster chemistry and special preparation of zeolite cages. The preparation methods commonly use techniques from preparative chemistry, such as precipitation, hydrolysis, and thermal decomposition. These processes involve mixing of solutions, blending of solids, filtration, drying, calcinations, granulation, extrusion (J. E. Schwarz et al. “Methods of Preparation of Catalytic Materials” Chem. Rev. 1995, 95 477).
Although, generally, catalysis is one of the most important fields of chemical technology, it is still far from being accomplished. Most catalysts are difficult to fabricate and the production process involves a sequence of several, complex steps (as mentioned above), many of which are still not completely understood (J. E. Schwarz et al. “Methods of Preparation of Catalytic Materials” Chem. Rev. 1995, 95 477). As a result, subtle changes in the preparative details may result in dramatic alteration in the properties of the final catalysts, which may thus become ineffective. Especially, the manner in which the active component of the catalyst is introduced onto a support, as well as the nature of the interaction between the active element and the carrier, could be of critical importance. Another crucial challenge in the preparation of catalysts is the ability to prepare these materials with sufficiently high surface area. Also, most of the multicomponent metal oxides require high-temperature treatment (exceeding 1000° C., as for alumina-based oxides), which is a significant technical drawback.
Another problem is that catalytic materials usually require “activation” i.e. some special treatment, before they could become active as catalysts, for example high-temperature annealing in vacuum or hydrogen atmosphere. Even then, however, in certain cases, the effect of annealing in hydrogen can indeed improve the catalyst's activity, but for other catalytic materials, the same treatment can actually have an adversary effect. Although the experimental data suggest that different catalytic supports lead to different effects of hydrogen treatment, these problems are still unresolved (B. C. Gates “Supported Metal Clusters: Synthesis, Structure, and Catalysis”, Chem. Rev. 1995, 95, 511). Moreover, most catalysts become rapidly deactivated when exposed to air. They should be therefore handled under protective atmosphere, and pretreated at high temperatures after exposures to air in order to regain their catalytic properties.
All the above disadvantages of conventional catalytic materials cause continuous efforts to develop new, inexpensive materials with catalytic properties suitable for reactions involving hydrogen transfer, and to develop novel methods of their preparation.
The invention presents a practical and cost-efficient solution to this problem, by introducing a new type of catalytic materials, their manufacture and use as catalysts in chemical reactions.